Retired pastor pens humorous book on life

By By Ida Brown / religion editor
Dec. 21, 2002
Retired preacher-turned-humorist and former Clarke County teacher Arlis Nichols has added author to his list of titles.
His book is "My Brother Was an Only Child: A Humorous and Nostalgic Look Back at a Preacher-Teacher and Would-be Comedian Growing Up in Rural Mississippi." Described as a bedside reader, the book is filled with humorous stories and period photographs of how things were a long time ago.
The book's chapter titles are as interesting as the stories: "Knot Holes, T-Shirts and Sausage Tubes," "Hambone Feeds the Cats," "The Curse of the Pencil Grinder," "The Stick I Got for Christmas," "The Day Arlis Discovered Electricity," "Jerry's Coon-Hunting Monkey" and "It's a Long Way to Enterprise."
The cover photo features a house on Highway 503, just north of Hickory. Nichols discovered the 123-year-old dwelling while driving along the road one spring afternoon.
After talking with the home's owner, Amelia Hurst, Nichols scheduled a a cover photo shoot the following Sunday, intent upon recapturing a scene right out of the 1930s.
In addition to his newly released "My Brother Was an Only Child," Nichols has recorded two comedy albums: "Live From Laurel, Forty-two Minutes of Laughter" and "ALIVE WITH LAUGHTER, Tall Tales to Tickle the Funny Bone," produced in 1994 and 1999 respectively.